PSN Review – Polar Panic

February 16, 2010Written by Dan Massi

Polar Panic, stars Polar, a polar bear who’s family has been captured by the evil company Globoco Inc. The company’s intentions is to capture all the wildlife, and move into the Arctic to gather up untapped resources. However, Polar won’t stand for this, as he’s on a mission to defeat the head of Globobo Mr. Big, and get his family back.

Gameplay for Polar Panic is quite simple when you get use to it. Each level consists of a large rectangular field, in which many snow and ice blocks are laid around. Enemies in the level are consistently moving around, so you’ll have to keep your eyes open, and pay attention. To kill an enemy, you must push an ice block into them, crushing them, and getting points. This can get tricky, as enemies are moving around, so you’ll have to move around the ice blocks to get them to the enemy’s path. If you need an ice block to break, you can push it into another ice block, and push it again. Snow blocks require one click of the x button, and they will collapse.

Polar Panic consists of 50 levels, each with a unique layout, and new enemies every chapter. The grunts of the game have large clubs, but once you further progress, newer, more sinister enemies are revealed. This is where the game becomes interesting. Early on, you didn’t need to worry on how the enemy was going to get you, considering you were separated by a wall of ice. In the later and more challenging levels dart guns and flamethrowers are present. Like all puzzle games, the difficulty slightly picks up each level (or chapter in this case) is completed. However, I noticed a far bigger increase throughout chapters, especially on the normal difficulty. More enemies are present on screen, and the threat is more dangerous. More enemies makes things more complicated to take them all out. Especially considering the fact that you need to dispose them all to complete the level, not to mention a time limit.

Graphics in the game are what would you expect from a PSN title. However, seeing incredible looking artsy games like Critter Crunch may change your view on the look of Polar Panic, which mainly consists of white environments. The music in the game certainly gets annoying after a certain amount of playtime, which should not happen in any game whatsoever.

The unfortunate truth about Polar Panic, is the gameplay gets old fast. It’s great for short spurts of your time, but not hours long game fests. Polar Panic features some replay value though, once you arecomplete the story mode.Polar Panic is certainly worth the $10, if you have a love for puzzle games, and the overall trickiness that consumes it.

Overall, Polar Panic should be played in small play sessions, with friends even switching turns playing. The game gets boring fast, even with the introduction of new enemies, and the environments are extremely bland.The game is fun when you first begin, however loses that fire when you get further into it.

PlayStation LifeStyle’s Final Score

Gameplay is fun in short spurts, but gets boring after hour long sessions.